McIntyre's edge over Rouzer continues to grow slightly

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) -- By the end of today, ten days after the polls closed, we will finally know the official results of the November 6 election. And if the votes hold the way they stand now, Rep. Mike McIntyre will return to Washington for a ninth term in Congress.

Unofficial results on the North Carolina Board of Elections website show McIntyre holding a 551-vote lead over Republican challenger David Rouzer in their race for the 7th District seat in the US House, which has grown since the day began.

By 4:05 p.m., out of 335,927 votes counted, McIntyre's lead represents 0.16 percent of the total. Those results, though, could still change slightly as vote counts are made official in North Carolina today and submitted to the state Board of Elections.

Still, assuming there is no significant change in the numbers, it is likely Rouzer will ask for a recount. If the margin remains within one percent, he will not have to pay for that second tally.

"Once the vote count from the canvass has been completed, we will release a statement based on those results early next week," Rouzer spokeswoman Jessica Wood said in a statement this afternoon.

Rouzer's camp has remained quiet since Election Day, and Rouzer has not spoken publicly since talking to supporters at his Election Night party in Benson. The state senator from Johnston County, though, has been taking part in Congressional orientation in Washington this week, as he is eligible to do because of the close margin in the race. He was even part of a photo yesterday of Congressional freshmen.

McIntyre, meanwhile, basically declared victory around 11:30 p.m. on Election Night despite his razor thin lead in the returns. Earlier this week his campaign sent out a news release saying the Congressman was heading back to Washington to get back to work.

The McIntyre-Rouzer race is one of a handful of US House battles across the country that are still undetermined. They are not likely to have a great deal of influence nationally, though, as Republicans maintained their majority in the House in the election.

Also up for grabs in today's vote canvassing is the race for North Carolina's second highest office. Republican Dan Forest leads Democrat Linda Coleman by a margin of 0.24 percent in their contest for lieutenant governor, according to the state Board of Elections website this morning.

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There are some ignorant commenters on here. Anyone with half a brain following this race knows the GOP legislature gerrymandered the district to unseat McIntyre. It was in the top 5 of outside spending of any US House race in the nation and millons more was spent in favor of Rouzer even though McIntyre's campaign raised more.

The fact that they still couldn't unseat him shows how conservative he is.

It goes to show how much the voting public continue to be puppets and complain about the Congress in Washington meanwhile blindly re-electing the some idiot lifers over and over locally. Mike is nowhere near what he claims to be. Mike is the king of BSing his electorate. He talks a good ole boy conservative Southern Democrat/Dixiecrat line while walking lock step with the left wing extremists in Washington and the electorate is too stupid to bother to check what Mikes really doing in DC and just accept what he says as gospel.

I agree the new district should be more favorable to republicans. But not a cakewalk. The GOP cramming Rouser down the throats of many hard right party members along with independents tilted the machine and Mike is going back in. But hey, Thanks GOP, you outdid yourself. Pun intended.

intended to help him. On the contrary it was done to help any Republican who ran in opposition.

Part of the restructuring removed the Lumbee Tribal Council and the majority of its members from his district; and they have been the backbone of his election successes from Day 1. Now he does not have them.